A Voss and Pike Casefile: The Early Days

Problems, Problems

Section 32: The Problem Streets

32

The Problem Streets

The map was the register made visible: Dockside streets shaded by friction score, ranked, captioned. Three of the top ten were streets where Bernie's customers and Albert's neighbours lived.

"It led to a clampdown in March," said Halloran. "Dispersal orders, extra patrols. Complaints went up afterwards, which proved the point."

You found the quay on the map. It was white. No friction, no complaints, no problem. Nobody lived there, so nobody had complained; the one place in Dockside where a woman had just died had never appeared on a single map.

Evidence: clue L, The Problem Streets

The Sentinel's quarterly map, built from the register's friction scores, ranks people's streets as problems while the quay - unlit, unfenced, and uninhabited - scores zero, because nobody lives there to complain.